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Apple has been the target of a new lawsuit from a company that is exhibiting patent troll-like behavior, with Sonrai Memory alleging that Apple had infringed a few patents.
Sonrai Memory Limited’s lawsuit against Apple, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, accuses the Cupertino tech giant of infringing two patents it holds.
One patent, 6,874,014, is entitled “Chip multiprocessor with multiple operating systems, dated 2005. The other, 6,724,241, is called a “dynamic load variable charge pump circuit”, first granted in 2004.
According to the declaration, spotted by Patently Applethe infringements relate to a long list of Apple products, dating back to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the fifth generation iPadall iPad Pro generations, and different MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models.
Apple is infringing on the 014 patent with technology used in the A-series, M-series and T-series chipsets, the claim said. Meanwhile, the 241 relate to the SK Hynix NAND Flash die, a chip used for processing storage.
The filing seeks damages, costs, expenses, interest, an award for ongoing license fees, and “reasonable attorneys’ fees.” A jury trial is also requested.
Apple is regularly the target of patent-related lawsuits, and in some cases the lawsuits are brought by: non-practicing entities (NPEs), also known as ‘patent trolls’.
In the case of Sonrai Memory, it appears to have many behaviors that make it appear as if it is an NPE. The company is not known for making products or offering services outside of litigation, but acquired the patents in the lawsuit from Hewlett-Packard and the semiconductor company Atmel.
Sonrai Memory has also filed similar patent infringement lawsuits against Western Digital, Google, Samsung, LGLenovo and others since July 2021.
It also seems that the company registration itself is very NPE like in nature. According to to the Irish TimesSonrai Memory Limited and several NPEs share the same Dublin address, as do directors, with the firms all holding patents for technologies and having been involved in lawsuits.